'Lord Of The Rings' Fans Reveal Creepy Fan Theories About Gandalf

From Redditor u/kwonza:

Think about it: you are sending a task force of dire-hard fighters on an almost suicidal mission into the heart of the enemy's territory. Then some hapless teenagers (and despite their age that's what Hobbits mostly were) claim they would like to tag along. Of course you would bring them to their senses and send them home, unless...

Out of the couple of facts we know about Hobbits are: they are rather silent, they have hairy legs, they have unusual resistance to the powers of the Ring. It was stated a few time that the Ring corrupts the fuck out of its bearer. Hell, the Wizard didn't even trusted himself with the d*mn artifact. So what would happen if somewhere in the middle of the road Frodo catches an arrow and is no more? The whole operation on which the fate of the world depends in jeopardized.

Solutions? Have a spare ring-barer. Maybe two, four won't hurt either. Sure, the Gray loves the Hobbits, but its better to sacrifice four so that thousands may live.

From Redditor u/LemonMuffins:

After Frodo and Sam have destroyed the Ring and lay on a rock as if it is to be the end of them, 3 eagles swoop down, 1 with Gandalf riding one but the other two empty. Gandalf's eagle collects Frodo, the second eagle collects Sam but the third eagle leaves empty handed. Smeagol must have been part of Gandalfs plan as in Gondor when he says he has lost sight of them it would only mean he would need two eagles to rescue Sam and Frodo. I believe Smeagol was Gandalfs back up plan to guiding Frodo and Sam to Mordor as he truely knows the way and as a Hobbit they may have been able to make Smeagol defeat the inner side of him whom is all of his evil - Gollum. At the start of the LOTR saga when they are in the mines of Moria the alarm is raised that they are being followed, Gandalf is told of this and acts calmly as he seems to know all there is about Smeagol and that he has been tracking them. 

From Redditor u/Beyondintodarkness:

I'm basing this entirely on the movies. Gandalf knew the answer to the ‘Speak friend and enter’ riddle immediately but he knew that entering Moria would lead to his own death. Obviously he did not relish the idea of dying but his knowledge of the Balrog that he did not share indicates that even though his death may not have been certain to him he knew it was likely. From the beginning of the Fellowship he does not want to enter Moria. So when they get to the door and he reads, in elvish, ‘Speak friend and enter’ he intentionally reads it in English aloud. He does this because to read it in Elvish would open the door. He plays the fool in order to try to convince everyone to go another way. When Frodo figures it out and asks him what the elvish word for friend is the look on his face is both of surprise that a Hobbit figured it out and of quiet acceptance at the inevitablility of his own death approaching.

From Redditor u/NinevahDraguht:

Remember in that scene at the beginning of Return of the King where Gandalf expresses doubt to Aragorn whether Frodo is alive or not?

What if Gandalf never doubted it but instead was testing Aragorn’s reaction to see if he’s ready to be King?

After Aragorn calmly reassures him, Gandalf gives him a long stare followed by a smile. What if that’s Gandalf thinking, ‘Yes, he is the hope that Man needs’

To me it always seemed a bit out of character of Gandalf to express doubt and anxiety like that. I think it would make more sense if the purpose was to gauge Aragorn’s reaction to it, it would make sense as Aragorn’s arc for the movie is his ascension to the throne.

From Redditor u/ZealatorPurgator:

Or more specifically, Gandalf - as an extra-dimensional intelligence prosecuting the latest phase of a conflict literally older than creation - took an interest in the precursors of the Hobbits and began deliberately cultivating them as a sort of ‘counter’ to the threat of Sauron's growing influence in general and to the One Ring in particular. My evidence for this (admittedly rather ‘out-there’) theory is as follows:

Firstly, Hobbits and their close relatives seem to be incredibly resistant to corruption from Sauron and the Ring. Sméagol/Gollum held onto the thing for millennia and retained a large portion of his own will, to the point of unknowingly keeping the Ring away from Sauron for a very long time. Bilbo had the Ring for decades with only a few latent effects on his personality. Frodo holds onto the Ring for more than a year in a very high-stress situation before he starts to crack. Sam outright rejects it for a short time in Mordor itself. All it takes is a few weeks of mere proximity for Boromir to go off the deep end and try to take the Ring by force. Further, Frodo is able to survive the Morgul-dagger for a length of time that surprises Gandalf and Elrond both. Sam, meanwhile, manages to strike a blow against Shelob, which apparently no other creature had been able to do before. Random mutations? Or signs of an active intelligence deliberately meddling with the Halflings' genome?

Secondly, Hobbits seem to be born infiltrators. In The Hobbit, Gandalf actively markets Bilbo - who has explicitly never met him before - as a ‘Burglar.’ A while later, with precisely ZERO training, Bilbo is able to sneak his way through an Ork-held mountain while carrying a glowing sword - BEFORE he picks up the Ring. He is then able to carefully tiptoe around Smaug with a surprising degree of success. In the Trilogy proper, Frodo and Sam are able to mount a multi-month stealth mission with relatively few issues, never being detected by anything larger than a local patrol and even posing as Orcs for a short while. This matches up perfectly with what I have read of Gandalf's modus operandi, which itself seems to resemble an almost Green Beret style of training up singular champions or small teams to serve specific purposes in the conflict with Sauron. Even the Hobbits tendency to be almost docile unless cornered could be considered a bonus when examining their possibility for stealth.

Thirdly, for a spirit supposedly sent to aid the whole of Middle-Earth against Sauron, Gandalf seems to have an unusual preoccupation with the Shire and it's inhabitants, to the point of entrusting it's defense to the Rangers and repeatedly coming to spirit away particularly adventurous Hobbits who are almost never seen again. The idle indulgences of a wanderer seeking a place of rest and innocence? Or a world-shaping spirit, coming back to check on his personal pet project and get promising lineages interested in each other?

Finally, I think it would just make for some interesting irony and drama for Gandalf when looking at the Uruk-hai project of Isengard.

From Redditor u/drake2732:

I love the books and the movies. My thought always was:

Gandalf is old and wise. Sauron was defeated before but always rise again feeding on selfness and greed of others. Gandalf was not trying to destroy just the One Ring, but to prevent Sauron from ever return again. The Hobbit shows Gandalf the ability of hobbits to unite the races. Gandalf could do ‘The Eagles’ move anytime, but decides to give union a chance and call the ‘people’ to decide. That is evident in the scene when the council is fighting to decide who will bring the ring to Mordor, in that scene the Ring shine while all presents give yourself to rage and fight, then Frodo say that he will take the ring to Mordor and Gandalf close his eyes.

It was never about the ring or Sauron. Is about the ability of the races to fight together.